household economy, she said this seemed to her ideal, but, she feared,
impracticable, not from the nature of schools, but from the nature of
boards.

"A Latin graduating class of seven girls, aged seventeen and eighteen
years, stated that they do their work without nervousness, restlessness,
or apprehension.

"This, with other statistics, would seem to bear out your theory that
after seventeen girls may study with much less risk to health.

"So far as I have observed, the strain or tear is chiefly in the case of
girls studying to become teachers. These girls often press forward too
rapidly for the purpose of becoming self-supporting at the age of
eighteen. The bait of a salary, and a good salary for one entering upon
a profession, lures them on; and a false sympathy in members of boards
and committees lends itself to this injurious cramming.

"Our own normal school,[1] which is doing a great, an indispensable,
work in preparing a trained body of faithful, intelligent teachers, has
succumbed to this injurious tendency. We have here the high and normal
grades merged into one, the period of adolescence stricken out of the
girl's school life, and many hundreds of girls hurried annually forward
beyond their physical or mental capacity, in advance of their physical
growth, for the sake of those who cannot afford to remain in school one
or two years longer. I say this notwithstanding the fact that this
school is, in my opinion, one of the most potent agencies for good in
the community."

[Footnote 1: Philadelphia.]